An endangered blue whale spouts 11 miles off the Long Beach Harbor in the Catalina Channel near offshore oil rigs. The Department of the Interior will hold a public hearing in San Francisco Thursday on opening new areas to oil and gas drilling.

Photo: David McNew, Getty Images

An endangered blue whale spouts 11 miles off the Long Beach Harbor...

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California brown pelicans fly near offshore oil rigs after sunset on July 21, 2009 near Santa Barbara, California. After months of partisan bickering over how to close the $ 26.3 billion deficit and begin paying the state's bills again, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders reached a tentative budget deal this week to keep one of the world's largest economies from falling into insolvency. Within the budget agreement, Gov. Schwarzenegger succeeded in having a proposal to expand oil drilling off the Southern California coast for the first time in more than 40 years. In 1969, the Santa Barbara Oil Spill from Union Oil Co. undersea drilling platform caused 200,000 gallons of crude oil to spread over 800 square miles of ocean and beaches and created a massive public outcry against drilling off the state's coast. During the 2008 presidential election, Republicans and Conservatives began pushing for renewed offshore drilling. The budget plan contains massive cuts in state spending and social services. Lawmakers can vote on the deal as soon as this week even as cities and conservation groups gear up to sue the governor and Legislature over emerging details that they disapprove of. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Support for building more nuclear reactors in California has tumbled dramatically since the catastrophic tsunami and accompanying nuclear meltdown in Japan earlier this year, researchers at the Field Poll found in a survey released today.

Nevertheless, the survey also showed a majority of voters think California's existing nuclear facilities are safe and most of those who stated an opinion oppose phasing them out.

The mixed message doesn't surprise Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo, who said resistance to nuclear energy in the Golden State usually spikes after a disaster, then recedes during long, problem-free stretches.

"The public wants to embrace nuclear power, but these accidents remind them of the risks and they switch their positions," DiCamillo said.

Opposition grows

The Field Poll found that 58 percent of Californians are against constructing new nuclear energy projects, compared with 44 percent opposed in 2010 and only 36 percent opposed in 2001.

A similar jump occurred in the early 1980s, following the radioactive leak at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania. In 1976, three years before the accident, 69 percent of Field Poll respondents supported building more nuclear plants in California, with only 19 percent opposed. By 1981, 55 percent opposed new plants.

Still, a majority of the registered voters queried - 56 percent - believe that the nuclear energy facilities now operating in California are safe. Thirty-two percent say they are unsafe.

Views are more divided on gradually decommissioning nuclear plants. Forty-six percent of respondents oppose the idea; 39 percent are in favor.

On that topic, the Bay Area marches to its own drumbeat, DiCamillo said. The nine-county area was the only region in the state where at least 50 percent support phasing out California's existing plants over the next decade. Only 43 percent of people in Los Angeles favor the idea.

In the Bay Area, Adam Grover, a Petaluma librarian, is among those respondents hoping California will embark on a plan to shutter its nuclear facilities.

"Statistically speaking, the more reactors you have the greater the chances are that something will happen," Grover said. "I figure, why take the risks after Japan, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island?"

Drilling off the coast

While public opinion on nuclear energy has swung wildly over the decades, views on another energy source - oil and gas drilling off the California coast - have remained relatively steady, the Field Poll showed. A majority of Californians, 53 percent, are against further offshore drilling. That figure has stayed between 51 and 62 percent for more than a quarter century.

The differences of opinion on oil drilling split largely along party lines. California Republicans favor drilling 65 to 32 percent; among Democrats, 27 percent are in favor with 67 percent opposed.

With increasing conflicts in big oil-producing countries and U.S. gas prices still hovering near the $4-per-gallon mark, however, it remains to be seen whether California and the country can keep a cap on West Coast drilling operations.

About 32 platforms along the California coast pump 100,000 barrels of oil a day from beneath the ocean floor, according to the Western States Petroleum Association. Despite federal estimates that there are 10 billion barrels of oil underneath the state's coastal waters, however, there seems to be little political will to overturn President Obama's 2010 decision to block any new oil drilling in the Pacific Ocean.

"We've long recognized this is an issue that divides California," said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the petroleum group. "But at the same time there's consensus that increasing energy security is a good thing for California, the nation and consumers."

The Field Poll's telephone survey of 950 California voters was conducted June 3-13 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.